The UK container operation Rockware is spending UK 20 million on improving efficiency and flexibility at two plants in England.
Part of the programme includes the development of NNPB technology for t…
The UK container operation Rockware is spending UK 20 million on improving efficiency and flexibility at two plants in England. Part of the programme includes the development of NNPB technology for the production of lightweight containers. Newly-installed forming machines will also be used for blow and blow and widemouth press and blow processes. The machines can also operate in both double and triple gob configurations. As well as upgrading forming machines, a considerable amount was spent on improving process control for glass conditioning. In addition, a recent UK 1 million project at one Rockware factory, focused on the installation of automated palletisers on all six production lines, has now been repeated at the other plant. The Rockware Group was acquired by BTR Plc, a multinational conglomerate, in 1991 and began operating as part of the ACI Packaging Group which operates glass plants in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and China. The emphasis was placed on high quality manufacturing processes including an international benchmarking programme. Best practice systems have been implemented for all aspects of production including composition of batches, furnace operating procedures, fore-hearth control, feeder control, machine operation, cold-end inspection and quality assurance. Statistical process control has also been introduced to reduce the variation of operating parameters. Automatic systems on NNPB lines now specify when machine adjustments should be made and by how much. This has led to much more accurate weight control and reduced variation. By installing the same processes across the group Rockware has increased its flexibility. Recently, this allowed one of the plants in England to supply spirit bottles produced by the NNPB process for the group“s unit in Scotland while the Scottish plant“s machines were being upgraded.